I don't think plot always matters too much, like The Big Lebowski I think is one of the greatest comedies ever but it's plot is almost irrelevant, it just serves as an excuse for us to enjoy some great comedic moments, and the same can be said here. Also similar to something like Inherent Vice, also with Brolin. But in this case I think the film could have been 45 minutes longer, because what it had worked. I'm not sure I'd use words like frivolous, because in most films the plot only really exists to give us cinematic moments, I really enjoyed the story, especially when...
Fair enough, I can see where you're coming from. I do think it highlights a bit of a double standard that exists though for people like the Coens and P.T. Anderson. If for example Marvel were to release a film full of under developed and unresolved subplots, I think some of the people praising the Coens would be tearing the Marvel film to shreds.
WARNING: "Hail, Caesar!" spoilers below
The communist boat came
The communist boat came
At first I wasn't sure about that. It just seemed so stupid and flimsy as a conclusion to that particular thread. Then however I saw it as a rather fun satire of McCarthyism and the whole Red Scare debacle, presenting their worst fears and showing them for how ludicrous they were.
Agree with you that it was better than Burn After Reading (okay) and The Ladykillers (poor), but really loved Inside Llewyn Davis too. Not seen the other two actually even though I own them
Yeah I thought I remembered you loving
Inside Llewyn Davis. I should probably give it another watch someday as it's the type of film that I think I can hate if I'm not in the right mood. And I'm often not in the right mood or frame of mind. However I found it a real slog. Thought it was a drab, lifeless bore of a film. Story never engaged me, the character was about the least symapthetic individual I can imagine, the aesthetic of the film (while I understand its reasoning) I found very grubby and ugly; there was just nothing I could grasp onto to engage me. It was also one of those films were I felt I could have turned it off after about 15 minutes and I'd have had the same experience as I did watching the whole thing. I got what the story was and what it was trying to say, and I understood his character in that time. And then I didn't feel it really went anywhere, or gave me any reason that made it worth sticking around for.
I seem to remember actually enjoying
Intolerable Cruelty for the first half of it, and was wondering why people were hating on it so much. Up until that point it had sort of been like Hail, Caesar! actually. It was very silly and fun as it paraded a series of excessive characters. Then it started to focus on the actual story and the relationship between the characters played by George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. At that point I felt it started to die a slow death and I was very happy when the end credits rolled. I do remember it having a great death scene involving an asthma inhaler though.
As for
A Serious Man, perhaps I shouldn't have included that actually as I'm not entirely sure what I think of that one. As I was watching through it it was doing absolutely nothing for me, I was hating it. When it was over however it stuck in my head for the next day or so and I began to think about what certain characters and aspects of the film could represent and I began to find it more interesting. I definitely need to give it another watch at some point with those notions in mind and see how it goes